**Updated 11/5/16
Here is our coverage of the 2A Crossover games as we find them. Our feature story is Tumwater’s big win over Washougal as Tumwater qualifies for the State Tournament the 27th time in school and Head Coach Sid Otton’s 43 year career at the helm of T-Bird football.
In other games, WF West slips past Columbia River, Franklin Pierce, Washington and North Kitsap all posted wins.
Link to District 4 Crossover Bracket
Link to West Central Crossover Bracket
Link to State Tournament Bracket
WF West 7, Columbia River 6 Game Story in Lewis County Sports by Matt Baide
Franklin Pierce 60, Bremerton 7
Washington 37, Fife 30
Steilacoom 29, Olympic 14
North Kitsap 44, Orting 21
River Ridge 59, Lindbergh 6 Game Story in the Olympian by Lauren Smith
Featured Story
Black Hills 35, Hockinson 12
(Battle Ground, WA) The Black Hills Wolves came in looking for an Evco 2A clean sweep of the crossover games with the GSHL 2A and it didn’t take long for them to put that plan into motion. Under a driving rain all night a former slot receiver for the Wolves took center stage as he put up some incredible numbers, but before we tell you about Kyler Nygren’s game, the Wolves defense would set the tone.
On Hockinson’s 2nd possession QB Canon Racanelli would overthrow his intended receiver but could not overthrow defensive back Wyatt Rollman who snagged the ball on the 27 and returned it 16 yards to the Hawks 11 yard line and the Wolves were knocking on the door. Zach Loveless would pound the ball in from the 1 yard line, Drew Kimmell added the PAT to make it 7-0 at the 7:27 mark in the 1st quarter.
Hockinson would answer on an 87-yard drive highlighted with a big 21-yard screen from Racanelli to Gannon Kytola and capped off with a 6-yard scoring pass from Racanelli to Devan Riggs. The extra point would go wide left and the Wolves maintained a 7-6 lead.
Black Hills would then go into a scoring frenzy beginning with 9 play drive from their own 36 with QB Christian Williams running in the final 12-yards for the score to make it 14-6. On the next play from scrimmage, Racanelli fired a pass from his own 6 down the right side of the field where Ethan Loveless stepped in front and returned it 20 yards for another Black Hills touchdown as the Wolves surged to a 21-6 lead with 11:37 to play in the half.
The frenzy was just getting started, the Wolves defense forced a 3 and out thanks to a 7-yard sack from James Tobin and Black Hills got the ball back on their own 29. Ladies and Gentleman let me introduce you to Kyler Nygren, running back as he took the handoff ran off the right tackle cut to the outside got down to the Hawks 30-yard line cut back to the inside leaving the defender standing there looking for his jock and was gone 71-yards touchdown and now the Wolves pushed their lead to 28-6.
After trading possessions the Hawks would drive down inside the Wolves 5 but would be denied with Ethan Loveless would pick off Racanelli in the endzone for his 2nd interception and 3rd team pick overall. The Wolves would take over on their own 20 where Nygren would rip off a 62-yard run and then on a 2nd a goal, Williams would try to hand the slick ball to Nygren but it fell on the ground where Kyler simply picked it up and zipped right up the middle for his 2nd score and a 35-6 lead.
Hockinson would get another 1st and goal just prior to halftime but would be stuffed thanks to Austin Daisa’s 10-yard sack. Daisa would finish with 4 sacks and a eye-popping 36-negative yards.
The 2nd half would be sloppy for the Wolves and a 29-point lead will let you get away with mistakes The Hawks would score a 2nd touchdown but on the drive would be helped with 3 15-yard penalties on the Wolves, a roughing the passer and 2 pass interferences. Racanelli would hit Matt Henry on a scramble play in the corner of the endzone. The fake PAT fell short and and the final tally would come at the 7:25 mark of the 3rd quarter.
Despite Nygren running for 212 yards in the 1st half he still put up another 88 pushing his total to an even 300 with 2 TD’s. The defense piled up 4 interceptions and a big hit from Owen Onisky knocked Racanelli out of the game the Wolves were sloppy enough not to find the endzone at all in the 2nd half but it didn’t matter. Black Hills rolled up 381 yards of total offense, Nygren’s 300 rushing yards accounted for 79% of the offense.
The Wolves defense overall was incredible with 6 sacks, 4 INT’s and a touchdown. They stuffed Hockinson for just 26 total 2nd half yards. This group effort would win our ProActive Physical Therapy Play of the Game.
The Hawks had their season come to an end finishing with a 7-3 record. Black Hills is now 6-4 and headed to the State Play-offs for the 2nd time under 2nd year head coach Kirk Stevens. Black Hills will likely have to travel to Bellingham to face the Lynden Lions.
Our Tommy Lowe of the Greene Realty Group’s Players of the Game went to Black Hills’ Kyler Nygren and Hockinson’s Devan Riggs.
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Featured Story
Tumwater 44, Washougal 0
(Tumwater, WA) The T-Bird defense was on tilt and never allowed the Panther offense to get going. The offense would give the T-Birds plenty of pop for the win totaling nearly 400 of offense with QB Noah Andrews leading the charge throwing for a Td and running 1 in. Trayten Rodriguez led off the scoring frenzy with a 29-yard TD run.
Andrews then found his favorite target Cade Otton on a 14 yard TD pass and Rico Spiegner dashed in from 36-yards out for a 3rd score as the T-Birds pulled away to a 28-0 lead at halftime. The T-Birds pulled away for good in the 3rd quarter with 16 more points going up 44-0 which triggered the running clock and Tumwater would close it out with the shut out win, ending the Panthers season with an overall 5-5 record. The T-Birds improved to 9-1.
Tumwater will now host Washington next week in the opening round of the State Play-offs. Our Tommy Lowe of the Greene Realty Group went to Zach Jones for Tumwater and Tyler Bowling for Washougal. Our ProActive Physical Therapy Play of the Game goes to Rico Spiegner’s 36-yard TD run.
Last night was also a special night for the retiring Coach Otton. Nearly 200 former players donned their snug fitting letterman’s jackets and/or game jerseys to honor Coach Otton, Coach Alexander and Coach Shoun as all 3 will be stepping down from this T-Bird Program that Otton first took the reins of back in 1974. The former players joined Otton and the T-Birds on the field before the game for the National Anthem and then got to socialize with the coaches after the game in the locker room.
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